(This recipe is inspired from cooking with my mom–i.e., you don’t really need a recipe for this!)
Step by Step Instructions:
To steam an artichoke, all you absolutely have to have is, well, an artichoke. Then it’s up to you what you want to use as a dipping sauce. I love an artichoke dipped in drawn butter, so to take a spin on that, I used about 2 tablespoons of butter and a tiny squeeze of half of lemon to make a lemon butter.
Begin by rinsing the artichoke under some running water. Then the trimming of the artichoke gets underway and before you know it, you’ll have a much more friendly-looking veggie that you can devour. It all starts by pulling the outer leaves off of the artichoke. They are pretty tough and you won’t get much out of them. As you can see above, I removed a few, but I honestly could have pulled off a few more.
Then using a vegetable peeler, I peeled the outer layer of the skin. Again, it’s very tough and you can actually eat the stem…it’s delicious! So peel off that exterior.
Using a sharp knife, cut off the top of the artichoke and a little of the stem as well.
Artichoke leaves are notoriously rough and pointy. You don’t need that in your life, so grab your kitchen shears and cut the tops off of the exposed leaves so that the artichoke looks like the above photo.
Now it’s time to steam away. I had never used my steamer before, so I knew I’d be experimenting with the cook time. I steamed mine for about 32-35 minutes, but just check on your steamer’s guidelines. I knew it was done when a sharp knife easily poked the stem and base of the artichoke.
Then you’re done cooking the artichoke! Easy, right?!
For my lemon butter dipping sauce, I melted 2 tablespoons of butter and squeezed a few drops of fresh lemon in the butter and stirred. It’s really that easy.
Then dig in! Pull off one leaf at a time and dip it in the butter. Then you kind of scrape the good stuff off of the leaf. You won’t get a whole lot out of the outer leaves, because they are still somewhat soft, but as you work your way towards the center, the leaves become more tender and you’ll get more flesh from them.
Then you’ll make your way to the artichoke heart, which is covered with the choke. You do not want to eat this part, take a spoon and scoop out the choke until you just have the artichoke heart and stem left…
…and it will look something like this.
This bowl shows all of the leaves I made it through and then the choke of the artichoke, which is kind of thistle-like. Now you can see why you want to scoop it out and discard it.
Then I finished by cutting up the stem and heart into bite-sized pieces that I could dip in my butter. Simply delicious and nothing goes to waste! I cannot wait to steam another one!
Ingredients:
Fresh Artichoke(s)
2 Tablespoons of Butter (per artichoke)
Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice (a light squeeze per 2 Tablespoons of butter)
Preparation Instructions:
1. Begin by washing the artichoke and then remove the outer leaves.
2. Then peel the skin on the stem as it’s quite rough and you won’t want to eat it.
3. Cut off the top and a little of the stem of the artichoke.
4. Finally, using kitchen shears, cut off the tops of the leaves where it’s rough and pointy.
5. Steam the artichoke for 30-35 minutes or according to your steamer’s instructions.
6. For one serving of the lemon butter sauce, melt 2 tablespoons of butter, squeeze a little fresh lemon juice into the melted butter and stir. That’s all.
7. To eat this vegetable, pull off one leave at a time, dip in your lemon butter and scrape it between your teeth to eat the edible part of the leaf. Once you get to the artichoke heart and choke, use a spoon to scoop out the choke and discard it. Then cut up the heart and stem of the artichoke into bite-sized pieces and dip them into the lemon butter and enjoy!
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Yum!!! I'm so glad you have your very own steamer now — you'll love it!! Off to buy artichokes…